Richard Lewontin
Richard Charles Lewontin (March 29, 1929 – July 4, 2021
In a pair of seminal 1966 papers co-authored with
From a sociological perspective, Lewontin strongly opposed
Previously, as a member of
Early life and education
Lewontin was born in New York City to parents descended from late 19th-century
He held faculty positions at North Carolina State University, the University of Rochester, and the University of Chicago. In 1973 Lewontin was appointed as Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Biology at Harvard University, holding the position until 1998.
Career
Work in population genetics
Lewontin worked in both theoretical and experimental population genetics. A hallmark of his work was an interest in new technology. In 1960, he and Ken-Ichi Kojima gave the equations for change of haplotype frequencies with interacting natural selection at two loci.[9] Their paper gave a theoretical derivation of the equilibria expected, and also investigated the dynamics of the model by computer iteration. Lewontin later introduced the D' measure of linkage disequilibrium.[10]
In 1966, he and
Lewontin and Hubby's paper also discussed the possible explanation of the high levels of variability by either balancing selection or neutral mutation. Martin Kreitman was later to do a pioneering survey of population-level variability in DNA sequences while a Ph.D. student in Lewontin's lab.[12]
Work on human genetic diversity
In a landmark paper published in 1972, Lewontin identified that most of the variation (80–85%) within human populations is found within local geographic groups, and differences attributable to the "
Affiliations
As of 2003, Lewontin was the Alexander Agassiz Research Professor at Harvard. He has worked with and had great influence on many philosophers of biology, including William C. Wimsatt, Elliott Sober, Philip Kitcher, Elisabeth Lloyd, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Sahotra Sarkar, and Robert Brandon, often inviting them to work in his lab.
Since 2013, Lewontin has been listed on the Advisory Council of the National Center for Science Education.[18]
Debates within mainstream evolutionary biology
In 1975, when
Lewontin and Gould introduced the term
Lewontin was an early proponent of a hierarchy of
In "Organism and Environment" in Scientia, and in more popular form in the last chapter of Biology as Ideology, Lewontin argued that while traditional Darwinism has portrayed the organism as a passive recipient of environmental influences, a correct understanding should emphasize the organism as an active constructor of its own environment. Niches are not pre-formed, empty receptacles into which organisms are inserted, but are defined and created by organisms. The organism-environment relationship is reciprocal and dialectical. M. W. Feldman and others[22] have developed Lewontin's conception in more detailed models under the term niche construction.
In the adaptationist view of evolution, the organism is a function of both the organism and environment, while the environment is only a function of itself. The environment is seen as autonomous and unshaped by the organism. Lewontin instead believed in a constructivist view, in which the organism is a function of the organism and environment, with the environment being a function of the organism and environment as well. This means that the organism shapes the environment as the environment shapes the organism. The organism shapes the environment for future generations.[23]
Lewontin criticized traditional neo-Darwinian approaches to adaptation. In his article "Adaptation" in the Italian Enciclopedia Einaudi, and in a modified version for Scientific American, he emphasized the need to give an engineering characterization of adaptation separate from measurement of number of offspring, rather than simply assuming organs or organisms are at adaptive optima.[24] Lewontin said that his more general, technical criticism of adaptationism grew out of his recognition that the fallacies of sociobiology reflect fundamentally flawed assumptions of adaptiveness of all traits in much of the modern evolutionary synthesis.
Lewontin accused neo-Darwinists of telling Just-So Stories when they try to show how natural selection explains such novelties as long-necked giraffes.[25]
Sociobiology and evolutionary psychology
Along with others, such as Gould, Lewontin was a persistent critic of some themes in
Such concerns about what he viewed as the oversimplification of genetics led Lewontin to be a frequent participant in debates, and an active life as a public intellectual. He lectured widely to promote his views on evolutionary biology and science. In the book
Some academics have criticized him for rejecting
Agribusiness
Lewontin has written on the economics of agribusiness. He has contended that hybrid corn was developed and propagated not because of its superior quality, but because it allowed agribusiness corporations to force farmers to buy new seed each year rather than plant seed produced by their previous crop of corn (Lewontin 1982). Lewontin testified in an unsuccessful suit in California challenging the state's financing of research to develop automatic tomato pickers. This favored the profits of agribusiness over the employment of farm workers (Lewontin 2000).
Personal life
As of mid-2015, Lewontin and his wife Mary Jane (Christianson) lived on a farm in
Lewontin died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts on July 4, 2021, at the age of 92.[3][28]
Recognition
- 1961: Fulbright Fellowship
- 1961: National Science Foundation Senior Postdoctoral Fellow
- 1968: Elected member of the
- 1994: Sewall Wright Award from the American Society of Naturalists
- 2015: Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (shared with Tomoko Ohta)
- 2017: Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal from the Genetics Society of America[31]
Bibliography
- Lewontin, R. C.; Kojima, K. (December 1960). "The Evolutionary Dynamics of Complex Polymorphisms". Evolution. 14 (4). Society for the Study of Evolution: 458–472. JSTOR 2405995.
- Lewontin, R. C. (January 1966). "Is Nature Probable or Capricious?". BioScience. 16 (1, Logic in Biological Investigation). University of California Press: 25–27. JSTOR 1293548.
- Lewontin, R. C. (1970). "The Units of Selection". Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 1: 1–18. S2CID 84684420.
- "The Apportionment of Human Diversity," Evolutionary Biology, vol. 6 (1972) pp. 391–398.
- Lewontin, R. C. (1974). ISBN 0-231-03392-3.
- "Adattamento," Enciclopedia Einaudi, (1977) vol. 1, 198–214.
- "Adaptation," Scientific American, vol. 239, (1978) 212–228.
- S2CID 2129408.
- Lewontin, R. C. (1982). Human diversity. New York: Scientific American Library. ISBN 0-7167-6013-4.
- "The Organism as Subject and Object of Evolution," Scientia vol. 188 (1983) 65–82.
- ISBN 0-394-72888-2.
- ISBN 0-674-20283-X.
- Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA (1991) ISBN 0-06-097519-9.
- The Triple Helix: Gene, Organism, and Environment, Harvard University Press (2000) ISBN 0-674-00159-1.
- It Ain't Necessarily So: The Dream of the Human Genome and Other Illusions, New York Review of Books (2000).
- Biology Under The Influence: Dialectical Essays on the Coevolution of Nature and Society (with Richard Levins), (2007).
- Agricultural research and the penetration of capital (1982) Science for the People 14 (1): 12–17
- Lewontin, R.C. The maturing of capitalist agriculture: farmer as proletarian. P. 93–106 in F. Magdoff, J. B. Foster, and F. H. Buttel, Eds. 2000. Hungry for Profit: The Agribusiness Threat to Farmers, Food, and the Environment. Monthly Review Press, NY.
References
- ^ Richard Lewontin at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ProQuest 303271509.
- ^ a b Angier, Natalie (July 7, 2021). "Richard C. Lewontin, Eminent Geneticist With a Sharp Pen, Dies at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved July 8, 2021.
- ^ PMID 5968643.
- PMID 5968642.
- ISBN 978-0-415-94249-2.
- ^ Langer, Emily (July 16, 2021). "Geneticist Warned Against 'Genomania'". Washington Post. Vol. 144, no. 223. p. B6. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
- ProQuest 301991815.
- ^ Lewontin, R. C.; Kojima, Kenichi (1960). "The evolutionary dynamics of complex polymorphisms". Evolution 14: 458-472.
- ^ Lewontin, R. C. (1964). "The interaction of selection and linkage. I. General considerations; heterotic models". Genetics 49: 49-67.
- S2CID 43582403.
- S2CID 4348580.
- S2CID 21095796.
- PMID 12879450.
- ISBN 9781139789004.
- S2CID 52825769.
- ISBN 978-1351810777.
- ^ "Advisory Council". ncse.com. National Center for Science Education. Archived from the original on August 10, 2013. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
- ^ Elizabeth Allen et al., 1975, "Against 'Sociobiology'", The New York Review of Books, November 13, 1975
- S2CID 2129408.
- JSTOR 1293548.
- ^ Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution Odling-Smee F. J., Laland K. N., Feldman M. W. Princeton University Press, 2003
- ^ Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin, The Dialectical Biologist, 1985
- PMID 705323.
- ^ "Science Contra Darwin", Newsweek, April 8, 1985, p.50
- ISBN 0-394-50817-3.
- ^ "The Wars Over Evolution" New York Review of Books October 20, 2005 "I, his student and scientific epigone, ingested my unwavering atheism..."
- ^ "Richard Lewontin: Pioneering evolutionary biologist dies aged 92". New Scientist. July 5, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
- ^ "Scientist as Activist". globetrotter.berkeley.edu. Institute of International Studies. Archived from the original on August 11, 2004. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
- United States National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
- Eurekalert. Archived from the originalon March 24, 2017. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
Further reading
- Philip Kitcher (1985). Vaulting Ambition : Sociobiology and the Quest for Human Nature. ISBN 0-262-11109-8.
- Steven Pinker (2002). The Blank Slate: The Denial of Human Nature in Modern Intellectual Life. Penguin Press.
- Rama S. Singh; Costas Krimbas; ISBN 9780521620703. - a two volume Festschrift for Lewontin with a full bibliography
- Edward O. Wilson (1995). "Science and ideology". Academic Questions. 8. Archived from the originalon February 7, 2005.
- Richard Lewontin (2004). "The Triple Helix: Gene, Organism and Environment". MIT Press.
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External links
- Quotations related to Richard Lewontin at Wikiquote
- an interview given at Berkeley in 2003
- Richard Lewontin's Profile at the California Institute of Technology
- Gene, Organism and Environment: Bad Metaphors and Good Biology - RealAudio stream of Hitchcock lecture on UCTV Archived May 19, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- The Concept of Race: The Confusion of Social and Biological Reality - RealAudio stream of Hitchcock lecture on UCTV Archived May 19, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- Internalism and Externalism in Biology, lecture delivered at Harvard university on December 13, 2007.
- Richard Lewontin publications indexed by Google Scholar